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South America

"After sampling muddy water from the mouth of the Amazon River, oceanographer Patricia Yager steamed in the research ship Atlantis toward the continental shelf, where a Brazilian colleague was chasing a phantom. Yager’s colleague was carrying a 1977 six-page research paper that included a hand-drawn map suggesting this region might mask an extraordinary set of reefs."

"Four men have been found guilty in Costa Rica for the killing of a sea turtle conservationist in 2013. The chief of a three-judge panel said the slaying of Jairo Mora Sandoval, who worked for a green group called Widecast, was tied to his activism in a war 'between poachers and environmentalists on the beach.'"

"Long before gunmen burst into Berta Cáceres Flores’s house in rural Honduras, Beverly Bell gave up any hope that her friend would live to an old age. “This was a marked woman,” said Bell, who kept a long list of the death threats. “Everyone knew it.”"

"A deadly algal bloom has hit the world's second biggest salmon exporter, Chile, where nearly 23 million fish have already died and the economic impact from lost production is seen soaring to $800 million, industry and government sources told Reuters."

"Mining company Samarco and its owners, BHP Billiton and Vale SA, reached a deal with the Brazilian government on Wednesday to pay an estimated 20 billion reais ($5.1 billion) in damages over 15 years for a deadly dam spill in November."

"Brazil's health minister said Friday that authorities were "absolutely sure" that the Zika virus is connected to devastating birth defects and rejected criticism that the government was slow to investigate the surge of cases that set off international alarms."

"Paraguay could face problems this year with dengue and other fevers transmitted by mosquitoes, which have proliferated due to rainy weather during the Southern Hemisphere summer, a health ministry official said on Tuesday."